Belgium’s defence minister warns of ‘dark winter for Europe’ with more ‘hybrid warfare’ from Russia - Europe live
Belgian defence minister Theo Francken said “there will be more hybrid threat actions” in the coming months, as he starkly warned “it will be a dark winter for Europe.”
Speaking at Euronews’s Defence and Space Summit, Francken said hybrid warfare “is not something that Russia [has been] doing for two or three years,” but for much longer and it has “expertise” in this area, often making it difficult for western countries to investigate them and attribute responsibility.
He particularly worried about Russia’s increased use of jet-powered drones.
“We need to scale up our air defences and we need to have more stocks, scale up production. Everything has to go faster,” he said.
He said Belgium used to be “the worse pupil in class” two years ago with low defence spending, but it has since improved and ramped it up its planning.
He said Europe got too used to its comfortable welfare state protections at the cost of adequate spending on defence, and this is now changing.
“Europe has been very good in investing in soft power, in social security. And it’s beautiful to have a pension system, to have social welfare systems [for] when somebody gets sick, when somebody lost his job – we have everything. But when there’s war or there’s hybrid threats, we don’t have anything. So yeah, we’re in a really difficult position.”
Key events
Russia moves towards mass attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine's PM says
'It will be a dark winter for Europe,' Belgium's defence minister warns
Overnight Russian attacks on Ukraine - in pictures
Morning opening: Russia targets communications, energy facilities in Ukraine
Russia has moved to mass attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian prime minister Sergii Koretskyi said, after overnight strikes on energy facilities in the capital and other regions, Reuters reported.
“This was the first time such a massive and combined attack had taken place since the end of the last heating season,” Koretskyi said on Telegram.
Belgian defence minister Theo Francken said “there will be more hybrid threat actions” in the coming months, as he starkly warned “it will be a dark winter for Europe.”
Speaking at Euronews’s Defence and Space Summit, Francken said hybrid warfare “is not something that Russia [has been] doing for two or three years,” but for much longer and it has “expertise” in this area, often making it difficult for western countries to investigate them and attribute responsibility.
He particularly worried about Russia’s increased use of jet-powered drones.
“We need to scale up our air defences and we need to have more stocks, scale up production. Everything has to go faster,” he said.
He said Belgium used to be “the worse pupil in class” two years ago with low defence spending, but it has since improved and ramped it up its planning.
He said Europe got too used to its comfortable welfare state protections at the cost of adequate spending on defence, and this is now changing.
“Europe has been very good in investing in soft power, in social security. And it’s beautiful to have a pension system, to have social welfare systems [for] when somebody gets sick, when somebody lost his job – we have everything. But when there’s war or there’s hybrid threats, we don’t have anything. So yeah, we’re in a really difficult position.”
Debris had been found at the premises of one of the western embassies in the centre of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said this morning, citing preliminary information.
Klitschko did not name the embassy, but said emergency services were heading to the site.
It comes after another night of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, which damaged energy facilities and other civilian infrastructure.
Russia said it targeted a communications centre and energy facilities in Kyiv, and port infrastructure in Izmail, among others.
Neighbouring Poland issued a high readiness emergency alert to residents of south-eastern part of the country this morning, as it scrambled military aircraft to monitor the situation.
I will keep an eye on this for you.
In other news, Romanian parliament will vote on a third nominee for prime minister, with EU lawmaker Siegfried Mureșan expected to struggle to secure the required majority.
And France’s Emmanuel Macron continues his visit to Spain amid ongoing housing protests in the country. He is due to appear at a press conference with Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez later today.
I will bring you all the latest here.
It’s Wednesday, 30 September 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
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